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Sea minister talks to fishing industry about sardines

The sea minister, Ana Paula Vitorino, has met Portugal’s purse seining organisations to inform them about the negotiations which took place with her Spanish counterpart late last week regarding the fishing limits and management plans for sardines in 2018.

An official source from the sea ministry told Lusa News Agency that the minister and the Secretary of state for fisheries, José Apolinário, met last Friday with purse seining organisations from the south and north of the country.The minister said that the 2018 sardine catch limits for Portugal and Spain should range between 13,500 and 14,000 tons, which was one of the proposals the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) raised. The Spanish fisheries ministry supported the proposal as it would help restore fishing resources and keep the fishermen working.Minister Vitorino had earlier said that sardine fishing was to be banned in some northern and central regions of Portugal, which are important for fish species reproduction. These limits are still to be defined.The ICES recommended suspending sardine fishing in Portugal and Spain in 2018, however it also pointed out some other possible scenarios concerning the maximum catch limits on 20 October. A day later the European Commission said that it would not forbid sardine captures due to their socioeconomic and cultural importance for the country, although it recommended caution and awareness regarding the environmental costs it might cause if nothing changes.